17th November (Cunningham Plies)

In this exercise we worked on back flexibility by extending our arms and making a circle by moving our torso area. We worked on our balance through holding our plie which also works our core strength. By doing this exercise our stamina will also improve as will our focus.

I feel I have improved in this exercise quite a lot as I have a lot more tension and I seem to pull up more. At 0.07 when circling the torso my arms need be straighter however my torso is clear and well extended. At 0.15 my arched back could be more arched to make the movement more clear. At 0.24 I pull my top down I need to not fidget in between moves.At 0.43 my second parallel turn out has improved and I am more in line with my lower body. At 0.53 my bum is out and I need more tension also my arms are too far back therefore my alignment needs to improve; to do this I need to spot more. At 0.59 my head is facing the floor and should be up and my bum is sticking out; to improve this I need more focus. At 1.06 my arms need a lot more tension. Again at 1.09 my bum is out -.-. At 1.14 I realise and straighten up. When doing my plies at 1.17 I would like to be able to go lower to do this I need more flexibility; learning the splits which I am trying to do will help this. I am trying to do this by stretching out over pillows and slowly taking away pillows to lower myself; this also helps with my balance. At 1.27 my foot extension is good. Throughout hold the plie in a foot extension my balance is fairly good however at 1.35 I start to wobble just before we release. I recover well and pull up nicely to finish showing good focus and tension.

My strengths in this exercise are my lower body tension which before was quite weak so this is a good improvement. Also my realisation on my mistakes i.e. when my bum was out I realised and pulled it in and straighten up. Although at some points I didn't notice I have shown improvement by realising that time.

My weaknesses in this exercise are the flexibility when holding a position (arched back) to improve this I could try and learn to do a crab from standing position. Being able to keep my bottom in place ! I need more tension in that area to keep it still.

Targets:

• Keep bum in (Lower body tension)
• Learn splits (To improve leg flexibility)
• Learn backwards crab.( To improve back flexibility)